The Space Between Worlds - Informal Buddy Read

[Lea]

Multiverse travel is finally possible, but there’s just one catch: No one can visit a world where their counterpart is still alive. Enter Cara, whose parallel selves happen to be exceptionally good at dying—from disease, turf wars, or vendettas they couldn’t outrun. Cara’s life has been cut short on 372 worlds in total.

Let's just say that only two people on my friends list have read this book. Both have rated it 5 stars and have it listed as a favorite.

Come and join us! We are going to start reading March 1st!

[Lea]

It sounds like Ioana has already started and I have dipped my toe in as well. I am going to try my best to be the last to finish this time instead of the first. :-)

[Ioana]

Why be the last? I'll be done in a day or two, I need someone to talk to about this. Hurry up, please.

[Lea]

Ioana wrote: "Why be the last? I'll be done in a day or two, I need someone to talk to about this. Hurry up, please."

I'm 9% into the book, I will speed up. Cara is visiting Ashtown right now.

[Alissa]

Ioana wrote: "Why be the last? I'll be done in a day or two, I need someone to talk to about this. Hurry up, please."

LOL I love it. I'm the jerk who hasn't started so I will move my butt this weekend!

[Lea]

Alissa wrote: "LOL I love it. I'm the jerk who hasn't started so I will move my butt this weekend!"

:-) If you can get to it, I'd love to talk more about it. I think we are done here, I'm going to have questions!!!

[Ioana]

Alissa wrote: "I'm the jerk who hasn't started so I will move my butt this weekend!"

I keep watching your status, waiting to see this in the "Alissa is reading now" category 😉

[Lea]

Ioana wrote: "Alissa wrote: "I'm the jerk who hasn't started so I will move my butt this weekend!"

I keep watching your status, waiting to see this in the "Alissa is reading now" category 😉"

I'm 67% of the way through. I'll probably finish Tuesday evening. :-)

[Alissa]

Ioana wrote: "Alissa wrote: "I'm the jerk who hasn't started so I will move my butt this weekend!"

I keep watching your status, waiting to see this in the "Alissa is reading now" category 😉"

it's there, i'm reading! =)

[Ioana]

Yay!!!

[Lea]

I have 9 minutes 55 seconds left. :-)

[Ioana]

Talk to you in 10

[Lea]

Well, it should surprise no one that I have questions and issues with some of the "rules" in the world. It starts out that Cara going to Ash was a really big deal, but then half the novel including visits between the two regions, so it seems like there isn't too much division. I really loved the pacing of the book, and even though I've read a lot of books about multi-verses, the concept felt fresh and interesting. I just wish the world building was a little more concrete, that transit between worlds was a little bit more scientific, and that I cared more about the characters. I'm a solid Maybe as to whether I'll read the sequel, because the thing I liked best about the book was the concept, and I'm not sure what a sequel would do to add to that. On the other hand, I did enjoy this book and I'm glad I read it.

[Ioana]

No, no surprise here.
I liked the beginning, it sounded so interesting, but when the rules began to be broken...
(view spoiler)[ I get it that when Caramenta traveled she had to die in order for Caralee to take over; but then Cara travels and Nelline is still alive, and she should't be (hide spoiler)].
There were so many things left unexplained, the travel part, the serum, (view spoiler)[ they could still build monster trucks and motorcycles but could not remember how to build a gun? (hide spoiler)] and I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending. I guess it had to be left open for the sequel.
Having said that, I'll read the next one, but not rush to be the first one to do it.

[Lea]

Yes! I felt the thing that you have hidden under your first spoiler was a big cheat and not adequately explained to my satisfaction. Especially given (view spoiler)[ the fact that the end of the book, where Adam was looking to kill other selves in other worlds so that he could take tourists to the other worlds seemed to indicate once again that two selves could not comfortably exist in a single world. (If the author was trying to explain that away by saying that the serum that was put in Cara's blood was the reason two selves were able to coexist, why could that not be provided to the tourists?) Also, if you were a tourist wanting to travel to another world, would you not immediately want to find your double? If Adam was going to remove them so that it would be safe to travel, going to another world would be less interesting to those who might otherwise want to go.

I agree about your second spoiler too. I have no mechanical skills whatsoever, but even I know that a combustion engine is far more complicated to build then a simple musket. And don't get me started on the resource issue.

And basically, if Cara doesn't kill Adam because Earth Zero needs resources from the other worlds, why isn't Earth Zero noticeably more wealthy than other worlds, and why does it need Ashtown at all?

I'm unclear how the House was able to remain independent. If the emperor of Ashtown is so power hungry, why would he let the brothel be independent? Do we know anywhere else in the world where that happens? Pretty sure any warlord would rid themselves of any competing power structures in their area...

I also wondered how the multiverse split, because it must have happened at a single point in time, the stories in each world were getting more and more different, and would have been unrecognizable if the single point in time hadn't been somewhat recent. I told myself not to fret over that one!

And also, while we are at it, it bugged me that they wanted to make the evil corporation that much eviler by having them terminate the employment of the other Transversers once Cara could enter their worlds. If Adam is so smart, wouldn't he have a plan for redundancy? I mean, Cara is valuable, but her ability to stay alive is very questionable. She's good at dying and I would want a backup plan. (hide spoiler)]

With all that said, it must sound like I did not enjoy the book. I did. I loved (view spoiler)[ how it was shown that people could suppress their tendencies and build a different story for themselves. I thought the author did a nice job of showing that, without getting preachy about it. (hide spoiler)] All in all, it was entertaining, and I might read the next one. We'll see.

[Ioana]

Yes, sooo many questions, I had them all plus a lot of smaller ones while reading. A lot of things left unexplained, but overall, an enjoyable book. Most likely, I'll read the sequel.
(view spoiler)[ This one bugs me, and I'll try to explain it: people are the same in the multiverse, they have the same family relations, but their personality is not quite the same. NikNik is an extreme example, very bad in one universe, good in the other. But that would mean that our personality and the way we behave in society does not matter, it has no impact on who we marry, who our children are/become, etc. It's been like this from the beginning (yes, that beginning that we don't know when/how anything about). That is not right. Who we are and how we behave matters, and I think this bothers me more than other inconsistencies in this world (hide spoiler)]

[Lea]

Yes, I think I get your point, and I think the differences (view spoiler)[ was what I liked about the book and thought there should be more. For example, "good" NikNik is still attracted to Cara, yet he lets her go. I liked that there was a "good" NikNik who helps Cara for no gain, because that means that our behavior does matter. It did change the outcome in that world. But the split in the multiverse had to happen at the exact time Cara was born, because there are no worlds where she doesn't exist, and there needed to be. That was what bugged me. (hide spoiler)]

[Ioana]

(view spoiler)[ the split happened before Cara was born, because people older than Cara exist in different ways in different worlds. Her mother, for example. (hide spoiler)]

[Lea]

(view spoiler)[That's interesting, maybe? See I was thinking her mother always had a daughter at that exact time and her mother's story was pretty much the same with the relationship to the House. I was thinking the changes that happened to her mother were a result of her mother's choices after Cara was born, not before? (to take drugs or to marry her stepfather or to continue working as a sex worker, etc.) Hmmmm...it's not very well understood. (hide spoiler)]

[Ioana]

(view spoiler)[ Too many things left up in the air. The same person exists in all universes...but it can die in some universes...so Cara's child will exist in Earth 0, but not in any other universe where she had died already. If this happened everywhere for generations since the split (again, when was the split?), the concept goes down pretty fast. The worlds will be different in too many aspects. Some people can travel now with no issue, because their doppelgänger was never born in that world. Maybe I'm overthinking this... (hide spoiler)]

[Lea]

Didn't Mark Twain say "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing"? Same way with thinking. Anything worth thinking is worth overthinking. From one classic overthinker :-) to the other! <3

Thanks for reading with me and overthinking with me.

[Ioana]

Thank you, reading with you is always so much more interesting! 🤗

[Alissa]

So im about halfway done and I can see already why you both rated it exactly the same, at 3 stars. I too have the same thoughts haha

[Ioana]

Alissa wrote: "So im about halfway done and I can see already why you both rated it exactly the same, at 3 stars. I too have the same thoughts haha"

I can't wait to hear them. I thought the book picked up by the 75% in, but it was very short lived :-(